SEPTEMBER 16, 1963 -- President Kennedy spoke of his "outrage" and "grief" at the Birmingham church bombing that killed four little girls a day earlier.

"If these cruel and tragic events can only awaken that city and state -- if they can only awaken this entire nation -- to a realization of the folly of racial injustice and hatred and violence, then it is not too late for all concerned to unite in steps toward peaceful progress before more lives are lost," Kennedy said.

Church bells tolled as a week-long daily city-wide minute of prayer began that at day at noon.

"In humiliation before God, we call every God-fearing person, regardless of race or creed, to pause daily at noon, wherever he is, for at least one minute of prayer," said W. Landon Miller, president of the Birmingham Ministerial Association.

"And who is really guilty? Each of us. Each citizen who has not consciously attempted to bring about peaceful compliance with the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, every citizen who has ever said "they ought to kill that nigger," every citizen who votes for the candidate with the bloody flag, every citizen and every school board member and schoolteacher and principal and businessman and judge and lawyer who has corrupted the minds of our youth; every person in this community who has in any way contributed during the past several years to the popularity of hatred, is at least as guilty, or more so, than the demented fool who threw that bomb.

What's it like living in Birmingham? No one ever really has known and no one will until this city becomes part of the United States. Birmingham is not a dying city; it is dead," Morgan said.

Bomb threats emptied several Jefferson County schools and attendance was low at Birmingham schools.

A federal grand jury was charged with investigating whether the law was violated in efforts to prevent desegregation of Birmingham schools, with Judge Clarence Allgood addressing the bombing in his order to the jury.

"We have witnessed what amounts to a mockery of our laws, a very mockery by those who would cut the roots of our American System of justice, who in doing so starve the growth of our very way of life," Allgood wrote.